Weekend Drama

Parkway Playhouse Ends Season with Another New Play About Regional History

The Parkway Playhouse’s 63rd season will close with the North Carolina Premiere of Ron Osborn’stouching Southern play My River, My Valley. The production will open on September 3 and run Thursday, Friday andSaturday evenings through Sept 12. There will be a 2:00pm Matinee performance on September 5 at 2:00pm. Ticketsrange from $10 to $20 with discounts available for groups of 10 or more, senior citizens, students, and active military.To make reservations, call 828-682-4285 or visit the Parkway Playhouse website at www.parkwayplayhouse.com .

Inspired the events that led up to the relocation of mountain families to construct the Fontana Dam and the relocationof the residents in Butler, TN to build the Watagua dam, My River My Valley is set along the NorthCarolina/Tennessee/Virginia border in 1941. The central characters are two sisters who are in their 50’s and early 60’sand their future is uncertain. Over the course of the play the two women, played by local actresses Bunnie McIntoshand Brenda Sparks-Howell, argue, laugh, sing, dance, and eventually find their own paths. The cast also features RobStorrs, a Green Mountain resident, who has appeared regularly on the Parkway Playhouse stage since 2004, as the localsheriff.The winner of the Barter Theatre’s Appalachian Play festival in 2005, the show received its world premiere in 2006.Producing Artistic Director, Andrew Gall, who was working on a production at the Barter Theatre at the time, wasthunderstruck by the characters and the play.

The Parkway Playhouse production is the first time award-winning andnationally produced writer Ron Osborn has given the rights to another theatre outside of the Barter.“I wanted to do this play because of its regional and local connection in addition to the fact that it had great opportunities for local performers” said Gall, who is directing the production. “The connection the characters have totheir home and the land they live on is something we still relate to, even though we are a generation removed. This play is something that stuck with me from the staged reading I saw 4 years ago, and I am anxious to share it with ouraudience. We lucked out getting the cast we have and I hope people will make some time to come and see it.”

My River My Valley is the third new play that the Parkway Playhouse has produced this season. (The other two being thenew musical comedy Married Alive! and Esley which told the story of local musical prodigy Lesley Riddle.) In 2008, theParkway Playhouse presented Lunch At the Piccadilly which was a new musical and that show has gone on to beproduced elsewhere as a result of the production in Burnsville.

“We have had good luck with new plays” said Gall. “I think our audience likes the fact that we are able to produce thestandards, like Oklahoma! and The Man Who Came to Dinner but the idea of seeing plays that get their start here andare based on stories about our community and our heritage is something that has tremendous appeal and it issomething that we can and will continue to devote time to. We will continue to produce audience favorites as well butthere are some great stories about this community that are just as exciting and are important to tell.”

The Parkway Playhouse’s 2009 Season is sponsored by Young & McQueen Grading Company, Carolina First Bank, theNorth Carolina Arts Council, and the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.